Heat Units

Abstract

IN No. 24 of NATURE (April 14) Mr. Thomas Muir calls atention to the inconvenience arising from the want of some uniform and generally recognised mode of expressing qualities of heat. As there can be no question that the inconvenience is a real one, I venture to suggest as one remedy for it, the employment of the following terms, namely— grain-degree, pound-degree, gramme-degree, kilogramme-degree, to denote respectively the quantities of heat required to raise the temperature of one grain, pound, gramme, or kilogramme of water from 0° to 1° Centigrade. These expressions are used in the article HEAT, in Watts's “Dictionary of Chemistry”; and having been for several years in the habit of using them in my lectures, I am able to say from experience that the employment of them greatly facilitates statements relating to quantities of heat.